Harris v. City of New York

222 F. Supp. 3d 341, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177827, 2016 WL 7188153
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedDecember 2, 2016
DocketNo. 15-cv-8456 (CM)
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 222 F. Supp. 3d 341 (Harris v. City of New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harris v. City of New York, 222 F. Supp. 3d 341, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177827, 2016 WL 7188153 (S.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND FOR FAILURE TO PROSECUTE

McMahon, Chief Judge.:

Jonathan Harris (“Plaintiff”) brings this action under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 against Detective Magliano, Police Officer Noce and Detective Taylor of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) and the City of New York (collectively, “Defendants”). Plaintiff has also sued ten John and Jane Doe NYPD officers, whose real names Plaintiff has not yet identified; no Valentin order has yet issued, an oversight the Court will correct at the end of this opinion.

Plaintiff alleges that Defendants violated his Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution, as well as New York City Administrative Code, by frisking him without reasonable suspicion, arresting him without probable cause, creating false evidence against him, failing to intervene and prevent the above acts, and engaging in race-based profiling.

Defendants have moved for partial summary judgment on the issues of qualified immunity (as to the named individual defendants) and municipal liability (as to the City of New York). Defendants also argue that Plaintiffs action should be dismissed because he has failed to prosecute it.

For the reasons that follow, Defendants’ motion for partial summary judgment is denied; their motion for failure to prosecute is also denied.

BACKGROUND

A. The Facts

The following facts include only those that the Court considers relevant to Plaintiffs Section 1983 action, and are deemed undisputed unless indicated in his response to Defendants’ Rule 56.1 Statement that they are disputed. The only evidence, aside from the complaint, that will be considered on this pre-answer motion is the deposition testimony of the Plaintiff, which is attached to the Declaration Gabriel P. Harvis at Exhibit 1, and is referred to hereafter as “PL’s EBT.” References to documents filed by police officers who may have been involved in the arrest are part of the police side of the story—which is not yet ripe for the telling. See infra Section B.

1. Plaintiff’s Warrantless Arrest

At about 11:36 p.m. on May 7, 2015, police were called to the area of West 64th Street and West End Avenue in New York, New York to investigate a 911 call reporting that a black male, standing approximately five feet eight inches tall, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt or jacket and black sweatpants, had a gun in his [345]*345waistband. Defs.’ Statement of Undisputed Facts (“Defs.’ 56.1”) ¶ 5, ECF No. 26; Pl.’s Resp. to Defs.’ Statement (“Pl.’s Resp. 56.1”) ¶ 5, ECF No. 32. The 911 caller reported that the suspect was located in a park behind the Amsterdam Houses, Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 5; PL’s Resp. 56.1 ¶ 5, subsidized public housing on the Upper West Side of Manhattan which the Court judicially notices as being located in the area of the bordered by 65th street to the north, 61st street to the south, West End Avenue to the west, Amsterdam Avenue to the East.

Two or more NYPD officers, one of whom was apparently Defendant Taylor and one was Officer Noce, responded to the 911 call. They traveled to the area of West 64th Street and West End Avenue and saw the Plaintiff standing next to two females. Defs.’ 56.1 ¶¶ 6, 8-9; PL’s Resp. 56.1 ¶¶ 6, 8—9. Plaintiff claims that he was in the area around 217 West 63rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue to visit a Mend. PL’s EBT at 41:13-18.

In a report filed by Detective Taylor (which is not supposed to be in evidence on this pre-answer motion), the police reported that Plaintiff had on a black “sweat shirt or jogging jacket,” black “sweaffjog-ging clothes,” sneakers, and headgear of “unknown color.” Deck of Paul H. Johnson to Defs.’ Mem. L. in Supp. of Mot. to Dismiss (“Johnson Decl.”) ¶3, ECF No. 27, Ex. C at 3. Plaintiff testified that he might have been wearing a sweatshirt. PL’s EBT at 45:18-20.

Plaintiff testified that he recognized one of the police officers from a prior encounter, PL’s EBT at 46:22—25, and the police struck up a brief conversation upon approaching Plaintiff. PL’s EBT at 48:2-3. The parties disagree about what transpired immediately after the police officers first began speaking to Plaintiff; but on this pre-answer, pre-discovery motion for dismissal on qualified immunity grounds, we are considering only the facts as told by the Plaintiff in his complaint and in the deposition that fleshed out his allegations in detail. See infra Section B.

According to Plaintiff, after the officers approached him and began speaking to him, the officers patted him down and, after finding nothing on Plaintiffs person, walked back toward their police car. PL’s Resp. 56.1 ¶ 12. Seeing the police officers walk away, Plaintiff also began walking away toward a nearby building. PL’s EBT at 49:1-8.

At some point during the encounter, the police officers stopped Plaintiff from walking away. They then went to inspect a jacket or sweatshirt that hung from a fence approximately twelve to fifteen feet away from Plaintiff. See PL’s EBT at 49:12—16.1 One of the officers2 searched the jacket and pulled something (later identified as a scalpel with a green handle) out from inside. Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 17; PL’s Resp. 56.1 ¶ 7. One of the officers asserted that object belonged to Plaintiff; Plaintiff said it did not. Defs.’ 56. ¶¶ 17-18; PL’s Resp. 56.1 ¶¶ 17-18.

Detective Taylor then placed Plaintiff under arrest for the misdemeanor offense of possessing a dangerous cutting instrument in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 265.01(1). Defs.’ 56.1 ¶¶ 20-21, 29; PL’s Resp. 56.1 ¶¶ 20-21, 29. One of the police officers then took photographs of Plaintiff, Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 22; PL’s Resp. 56.1 ¶ 22, and Plaintiff felt that the officers were making fun of him while doing so, Am. Compl. ¶ 20.

[346]*346Plaintiff was then brought to the 20th Precinct, After a matter of hours,3 he was given a desk appearance ticket charging him with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 265.01(1), and sent on his way. Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 31; Pl.’s Resp. 56.1 ¶ 31.

Ultimately, the District Attorney for New York County declined to prosecute Plaintiff, on the ground that the scalpel was not a weapon described in the section of the Penal Law that Plaintiff was charged with violating. Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 34; PL’s Resp. 56.1 ¶ 34; Johnson Decl. ¶ 12, Ex. L at 2.4

2. Plaintiffs Injuries

Plaintiff asserts that he suffered damage as a result of Defendants’ actions, in that he “was deprived of his liberty, suffered emotional distress, mental anguish, fear, anxiety, embarrassment, humiliation, and damage to his reputation.” Am Compl. ¶ 26.

3. Plaintffs Suit

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
222 F. Supp. 3d 341, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177827, 2016 WL 7188153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-city-of-new-york-nysd-2016.